In April 2011, former Mexican President Vicente Fox sat before an audience at the University of Colorado at Boulder and in his baritone voice and frank tone urged Americans to legalize marijuana. His thrust: it could help enervate Mexico’s violent drug cartels. “The drug consumer in the U.S. yields billions of dollars, money that goes back to Mexico to bribe police and money that buys guns,” Fox said. “So when you question yourselves about what is going on in Mexico, it depends very much on what happens in this nation.”

At the time, many pundits warned that legalization was a nonstarter. But on Tuesday, voters in Colorado and Washington state did exactly what Fox called for: they approved landmark amendments to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana.

As supporters in Colorado jumped up and down, shouting “64, 64” after the amendment’s ballot number, the seismic implications of the reforms began to be slowly digested by activists across the globe, especially in drug-war-torn Mexico. “It was very emotional,” says Jorge Hernández, president of the Collective for an Integral Drug Policy, which is pushing for legalization in Mexico. “Now we are not like madmen in the desert. This transforms the debate.” That’s because the U.S. referendums signal the first time voters have approved the full legalization of marijuana anywhere on the planet, giving advocates from Mexico to Moscow bona fide cases to cite and follow. Even the famous cannabis coffee shops of Amsterdam exist only through an ambiguous policy of toleration often referred to as decriminalization, something Portugal has pursued as well. A 2009 Mexican law also decriminalized possession of small amounts of cannabis and other drugs, but production and selling has been left in the hands of bloodthirsty traffickers.

Reformists in Colorado and Washington State are still far from claiming an all-out victory. Marijuana remains illegal under U.S. federal law, setting up a confrontation between cannabis growers and the re-elected Obama Administration. Furthermore, U.N. treaties oblige all signatories to prohibit the legalization of marijuana as well as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

Nevertheless, entire countries may soon follow Colorado’s example, forcing an international review of the issue. Uruguayan President José Mujica is pushing to legalize marijuana by the end of the year — legislation there would even make the government the drug’s sole legal seller — and there is strong support for reforms in Argentina and Brazil. “What happened on Tuesday was a game changer. It will have a huge political and symbolic impact,” says drug analyst Alejandro Hope from the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness think tank. “Now it would be very hard for the U.S. to tell people not to legalize marijuana.”

The institute released a report last week saying that the U.S. state amendments could dent Mexican traffickers’ finances as gringo consumers buy more locally produced grass than the Mexican product, which it said accounts for a third of the Mexican drug cartels’ revenue. American smokers currently import from 40% to 70% of their cannabis from Mexico, according to the report. Legalization in just two states, of course, may not have a very dramatic effect. What’s more, Mexican cartels traffic other narcotics, including cocaine, heroin and meth, and commit lucrative crimes from kidnapping to extortion, so even nationwide U.S. marijuana legalization would not destroy the cartels. Still, it could substantially weaken them.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón did not immediately comment on the votes in Colorado and Washington. Back in 2010, he had spoken against a similar initiative to legalize marijuana in California. However, after the huge cost of his military offensive against cartels, with about 60,000 drug-related murders since he took office in 2006, he has questioned prohibition in more recent statements — including a particularly frustrated speech last year after narcos massacred 52 innocent people in a Monterrey casino. In September, Calderón joined Latin American Presidents from Guatemala to Colombia in demanding a new U.N. debate on drug policy.

Calderón leaves office on Dec. 1, passing the torch to President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto, who has already said he wants to prioritize reducing murders above busting drugs. The new amendments in the U.S. will raise further questions about whether Mexico should send its soldiers and police to burn marijuana fields and seize the cartels’ vacuum-packed boxes of weed. “Why are we busting trucks of marijuana in Mexico when they are selling it over the counter in some U.S. states?” former Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda asked on Mexican radio on Wednesday. “There is no logic to it. It is schizophrenic.”

Whoever thought that marijuana would one day expose a corrupt Pharmaceutical vested White House monopoly on medicine . Prescription medicine is used and abused , the consequence is usually considered overdose or suicidal and yet the doctors continue making profits on all these very deadly but profitable prescriptions ask Michael Jackson or

Actually chris your wrong the u.s. Government has a patent on cannabis for its medicinal use but the u.s. Government is stupid you can not patent a plant check that out its called the library of congress. Actually in a 2003 study by government scientists they found out cannabis cured cancer in rats next step humans, thats nationalcancerinstitute.gov, 200 millionaire's serving in congress vs. 200 million americans breakin there backs workin slave labor hmmm whos lazy here and uneducated do your research before you open your mouth.

As I sit and read through these comments; I realize why cannabis is being held in the Class 1 scheduling like it is. The reason is simple people are uneducated on the matter and will never become educated on the matter; the American society like many others are inherently lazy.The Federal government says cannabis is a schedule 1 drug;meaning not medicinal value of any kind, as 1 of the criteria for holding the schedule1. Yet if a common person does some research and comes across US Patent6,630,507 Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants issued toU.S.Health and Human Services that was issued on October 7, 2003 and has an estimated Expiration Date: February 2, 2021.Then that same person has to ask themselves; how can cannabis be illegal because of non-medicinal, but the government holds a patent on the medicinal value?Just a little unlawful or just a little hypocritical which do you think?

This one topic alone shows exactly why cannabis is in schedule 1; it is called profits.

" U.N. treaties oblige all signatories to prohibit the legalization of marijuana as well as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine."- and here is the tricky part; how does a politician disavow a treaty that his or her country vowed and pushed for?? How does a politician say; oops we were wrong and save face?? This next to financial loss for several contributors are major issues.

Please remember the only reason marijuana is illegal in the first place is because Hearst didn't want competition from hemp cutting into his timber profits ..... the by-product of pulp which was used for making the paper on which his newspaper was printed. He personally hired the guy that went around the country showing the movie "Reefer Madness," also produced by Hearst cronies, to scare the crap out of local PTAs and small towns all over the country. It was purely a business decision and had absolutely NOTHING to do with peoples' health or well being. Politicians were not, true to form to this day, willing to stand up to one of their biggest financial supporters while he was manipulating the ignorant masses.

The absolute truth is that marijuana consumption "fatigues" the nervous system..just as alcohol consumption does..both, in a strong way....leading to an inhibition of expressing our potential for intelligence, creativity and health. But, if alcohol consumption is legal, then it's inconsistent to criminalize the consumption and therefore the sale of marijuana. We should research the long term effects of marijuana consumption and educate the public to the dangers of its use...the medical uses notwithstanding.

Internationally, Colorado and Washington have taken the first step in ending the global war on marijuana. Estou feliz que o Brasil quer regular a machonha melhor. As a Brazilian American heavily involved in the movement in Colorado, this is a very enlightening and promising step toward making the world, South America particularly, a better place.If anyone wants to know more about the inside of Colorado's marijuana movement, please contact us. We can help investors, media, and governments understand this issue better and implement real solutions. www.complywithme.com

No one ever died from a pot over dose. People seldom if ever start a fight while smoking pot. Compared to some of the perscription drugs I currently take, pot has no side effects and no withdrawl yet works better for pain. It should never have been put in the same class as other hard drugs that have shown time and time again to waste mind and body. I'm glad they voted yes and am looking forward to it being legal and regulated. Frankly, between equal marriage and legal pot Washington state is going to have a good year. The federal government needs to catch up on both issues.

The subject is ending marijuana prohibition. Prohibitionists like to lump marijuana with the hard drugs to cloud the issue and cast their harms onto marijuana. - No one thought it was necessary to discuss opium when we were ending alcohol prohibition. Each drug is a different story, with different levels of harm, and requiring unique regulatory systems.

We don't have the same policy for alcohol as we have for tobacco as we have for caffiene.

Some people believe that "LIBERTY" shouldn't just be an ad slogan on our (fake) money and in our abused foundational documents. We either have liberty or we don't. If I can't eat a pot brownie or do the occasional line of cocaine, then I'm not free...so where's this advertised Liberty at, anyways?

Why is it even illegal? Considering just what is legal in the US, including amphetamines (in part given to millions of kids as young as 6 or 7), barbiturates, alcohol, cigarettes, aspartame and other artificial sweeteners, a whole host of chemical additives to food, a whole host of under-/untested drugs, household products that are often very dangerous, infant mutilation, gasoline (the ultimate terrorist weapon, when you think of it), guns, knifes, ....i mean it's OBVIOUSLY not a public health issue, that sure doesn't make sense at all. And it has nothing to do with people going crazy and hurting others. It is illegal for economic and political reasons, in part to help the pharmaceutical industry, the alcohol industry, etc. and in part to control people's minds from getting to "enlightened" which pot can definitely do. For that matter, cocaine and heroin aren't so dangerous either, but can also cause illuminated states of mind, and also are useful for self-medication, and actually better than a lot of the stuff that is pushed by shrinks and other doctors. I mean, Tylenol is far from safe...just look up that one thing and you will begin to realize a lot. Tylenol causes liver damage in everyone. Xanax (and it's family of drugs) is the most physically addictive drug known, maybe, and also extremely detrimental to the brain and body. But, it's legal and easy to get..."Doctor, I am anxious and can't sleep..." Here you go! "Doctor, my little Johnnie won't sit still.." and so on. Lots of legal ways to mess yourself up, and your kids while you are at it. Drug prohibition is a nightmare and there is just no good reason for it...ok, no sane reason, no humane reason. There are plenty of reasons, I suppose.

Wow a lot of you people are really dumb. The dumbest being all these people tossing out opinions as if they are facts that are backed up by research. Not one of you is an expert so stop talking like you people are. Weed is harmless that’s my OPINION. I have used it many times and find nothing wrong and nothing addictive about it. I haven’t smoked in a month and was smoking every day before hand and in no way am I feening for a joint, it’s not crack, meth, heroin and alcohol people. I just stopped because I thought a break would be o.k. It all comes down to personal responsibility, which is something people don’t like to take sometimes. I have a bigger problem with people making excuses for EVERYTHING than I do some one smoking weed as long as that person takes personal responsibility for their actions. Get your heads out of your asses and realize that everyone doesn’t have to live how some people want others to live. We should all be entitled to live the lives we want to live. That’s called FREEDOM. And if after putting in 40-50 hours of work a week, I want to relax and smoke a little on the weekends then that should not be an issue at all. And people who have a problem with that should just analyze their lives and worry about themselves especially you Bob Moody you sound like an uneducated retard who lives with his mother at 40 and probably puts on women’s under wear and jerks off in his free time because he has no friends to chill with, you ignorant ass clown.

1 Corinthians 5:6-7.........6 Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.

Legalizing weed will give the cartels more time and efficiency to sell harder drugs like heroin, cocaine, and meth. They are not nearly as bulky as weed and are much more profitable due to the higher prices they can charge for these drugs, and because these drugs are more addictive than weed. So the cartels will get a more directive line of products, cheaper transportation costs, higher profit margins and a stronger addictive customer. Win-Win for everybody!

Sorry, but keeping it illegal makes it more fun AND what do people think is going to happen once the government starts hitting weed with taxes? What is going to happen you ask? People like me who smoke weed will REFUSE to pay the gov't taxes. Taxing weed is the ANTITHESIS of weed culture. So, people like myself will continue to buy better, cheaper weed from the dealers we are already buying it from now, and then, the entire drug war will escalate. More people will be killed in Mexico. Legalization is an opening salvo to a pan latin american drug war in the western hemisphere unlike anything anyone has ever seen. People need to stop citing Holland and Portugal as successful examples of drug legalization - we are not either one of those countries. We are a massive evolving creature of a nation with over 300 million people. Far different from Holland folks.

As someone that has smoked for over 20 years now, I can tell you there are more adverse effects from caffeine and soda than from marijuana, at least in my case. I plan on donating my body to science when I die, so hopefully that will help in research. By the way, I have a better memory than most of my non-smoker friends. The point is, and I'll use as an example pretty much every single commercial for some new prescription pill, substances affect people in different ways and side effects as well as long term effects will always vary widely.

@BjLincoln Several years ago a woman at SeaTac Airport freaked out when inspected and tried to swallow her pot pipe and run at the same time. She choked to death. It was a fear overdose brought on by fear of the people who are paid to serve our best interests. People don't get in much trouble for a pot pipe, but she was probably a good person who felt she was a criminal to the law and she panicked and over reacted. so sad.

YOU MUST HAVE BEEN RAISED WITH BLINDERS.....IF GOD DIDNT WANT MARIJUANA ON EARTH IT WOULDNT BE HERE.....IF HE DIDNT WANT HUMANS TO USE IT HE WOULD NO HAVE PUT MARIJUANA RECEPTORS IN HUMAN BRAINS......DO YOU KNOW WHAT A MARIJUANA RECEPTOR IS? IT IS THE PART OF THE BRAIN THAT TAKES IN THC......NOTHING ELSE WORKS TO STINMULATE THESE RECEPTORS......SO BETTER GO STUDY THE BIBLE A BIT MORE.......AND TRY LOVING AND ACCEPTING YOUR NEIGHBOR....HOPE THAT ISNT TOO BIG A ONE FOR YOU!!

THIS IS NOT 1962.....rICHARD nIXON IS NOT PRESIDENT.....THE DRUG WAR IS A TOTAL FAILURE...........ALCOHOL IS WHAT CAUSES CAR ACCIDENTS ....NOT MARIJUANA........GET WITH IT ...IT IS 2012!!! tHE POPULATION CANT BE FOOLED FOREVER WITH FEAR.

Many people think marijuana consumption causes accidents like alcohol does. It doesn't, for various reasons. Research has shown marijuana is less intoxicating. More importantly, while alcohol drinkers think they are better drivers and so drive faster and more aggressively, marijuana consumers are very aware of their altered consciousness and correctly judge when they are too impaired to drive - refraining from doing so. If they must, they correctly compensate for their altered state by driving slower and more cautiously.

The point is, judgement is not affected like it is with alcohol. Marijuana consumers simply don't put themselves or others in harm's way. Consequently, the preponderance of the research shows marijuana is NOT a significant cause of auto accidents.

@popularusaguy@yahoo.comWow, you swallowed the whole thing raw, congratulations.Who are you speaking on behalf of? Personally I find it comforting to escape reality every once in a while. Either with alchohol, music, movies or video games, perhaps. There are many ways to escape reality, not just drugs. And why shouldn't we escape reality once in a while? Is it really wrong to not think about the every day hassles and chores and just sit back and relax every now and then? If it is I'll go kill myself immediately..That said, the experiences one has while drugged or drunk are just as real as anything else. The experience of reality changes all the time, even when you're completely sober. You view things differently when you are hungry compared to when you are full, when you're cold compared to when you are warm and so on. There is no 'normal' perception of reality.The gateway-theory, btw, has been proven wrong many times. And it doesn't even make sense. There's nothing in pot that tells your brain to do heroin. If anything, it's the harmless effects of pot that makes you question the other drugs' harmfulness.Thank you, and congrats to Washington and Colorado on taking a step towards the future!

@AnanyaMorino AnanyaMorino where do you get this info...even with taxes it could be cheaper than it is now and it will probably be a much higher quality like what you can get at medical marijuana clinics...which is grown in the united states and would actually diminish deaths in mexico. I have been smoking pot for over 20 years and would have zero problems with paying a tax and it is not the antithesis of anything...do you need to feel you are breaking a law for it to get you off? try public sex for cheap thrills

@AnanyaMorino It's actually more likely that your dealer will eventually stop selling weed because less people will bother buying it from him and his sources will dry up over time. "Weed culture"... what a laughable concept. Continue to buy your pot-leafed clothes and products. You're taxed on all that shit and everything else, why should weed be any different? You think that you should really be paying that amount of money you're paying now for it? It's already over-priced! Not everyone that smokes weed or NEEDS it cares about "weed culture" and what it's Antithesis is... Grow up. Your opinions sound like those of a high school girl who just started smoking weed because her hippie college boyfriend got her into it. "It's more fun when it's illegal! Taxes are just the MAN'S way of keeping us chained down" Lame.

Actually because the government wants to undercut the black market, weed prices would be just a bit lower than current black market prices (including the tax). For example, say they sell it at $10 a gram, then put a 50% tax on it to $15 it would still be cheaper than current black market prices... that is from what I hear :)

@AnanyaMorino ,as a daily toker, I have to disagree wholeheartedly. It being illegal in no way adds to the fun. Maybe when I was a teen I would have agreed. But as an adult I would rather pay taxes, get baked, and not run the risk of a career ruining drug charge. I don't smoke weed to be a part of your so-called "weed culture". I smoke because it fun, incredibly relaxing, and without the nasty side effects of alcohol. If I could buy a pack of J's like a pack of cigarettes I would be more than willing to pay taxes on it. Many of the successful dealers I know have keen business minds and would go legit in a second if it meant they could provide money and stability to their lives without the risk of jail time. Imagining walking into my dealers new shop and buying a bag of his finest still feels too dreamy though...but I do, for the first time, have hope that maybe in my retirement I will be able to sit on the front porch and have my morning coffee and a toke of some sweet, then heading to the garden to tend my own plants!

@AnanyaMorino Taxing weed will just lead to people growing thier own. After all the stuff is classified as a weed like crabgrass. it will grow anywhere, backyard, basement, closets, even in the cracks in the sidewalks. another prime element of the "hippie" tax avaoidance culture is homegrown organic products. Fits right in with their culture. I like you Holland and Portugal examples, while weed can be grown quite successfully hyponically in basemensts and closets, we have far more open land to grow our own weed. Weed responds very well to the simple techniques amatuer gardeners employ.

@Wulfz@BobMoody therefore they can concentrate on the more profitable and less costly to produce and transport, less risky to smuggle, and more addictive drugs heroin, cocaine and methamphetimine. Why wouldn't the cartels want that? say, r u working for the cartel?

@BobMoody@AnanyaMorino Some people brew their own beer, they must be "hippie" tax avoiders too! Ultimately most of us Americans are lazy and don't want to put in the effort, time, or money needed for equipment required to grow it well. Yes, it's a weed and grows anywhere but the same quality applies to a home brew kit vs Stella Artois. Consistency and quality will trump avoiding taxes for a great majority of the consumers.

Bob, what's wrong with that? Do you believe our taxes are being used for good, its just one less lawyer the government can hire to cover their illegal bidding, I'm all for tax evasion. If you can legally avoid taxes, do it! If I want to grow tomatoes and apples in my back yard I really doubt I'm doing it for tax fraud, but all the more power to it! haha, also by growing weed in their backyard they are again taking money away from cartels and they at least know where the weed came from, so they know it isn't laced with anything therefore it isn't dangerous.

@Dankleberry@BobMoody@Zumba900 because they enjoy it and smoke it and see no problem with it. THAT IS CALLED DENIAL. I never sais it was dangerous or addictive for all people, but admit, most addicts take your attitude: that weed is not addictive. My opinion is that we should all understand that weed CAN be addictive and to approach it with that bit of caution in mind. After all evenNORML doesn't condone the use of week by minors. So if weed is so harmless why not allow minors to partake? weed, according t the addicts, isn't as bad as cigarettes.

@BobMoody@Zumba900 Classic example of what annoys me, When someone anti-Cannabis calls someone an addict or in denial when they defend Cannabis. Ofcourse they're going to defend it because they enjoy it and smoke it and see no problem with it. When people realise its not Cannabis that's dangerous its the people themselves.

@BobMoody@Wulfz If they could sell more heroine and coke they already would. Removing one product from their market cuts into their profits, anyone with a minimal understanding of economics would get this.